NCW Real Estate Blog

It looks like the Wenatchee City Council is set to talk about Affordable Housing at 5:15 pm during their July 17th Work Session at City Hall.  The Affordable Housing Action Plan is attached and it is 9.9 Meg to open.  Rick Smith, Community Development Director, discusses the history of rising home prices in Wenatchee and hiring David Rosen Consultants to write an assessment on affordable housing in Chelan.  The report is attached to the above plan.

Currently, rather than having one of the fastest rising housing markets, Wenatchee may have one of the most slowly declining.  I have to admit, with the consultant selection process I was expecting that the conclusions of the city staff would be something along the lines of we must tax the citizens to build more affordable housing. 

Director Smith’s recommendations fall into three general categories I’ll paraphrase: [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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On Wednesday evening, the Chelan Taxpayers group held a public meeting.  It was a first meeting and was something of an organizational event.  Courtney Cox (http://chelantaxpayers.blogspot.com/) presided over the meeting that was held at Karyl Oules residence in south Chelan.

About 50 people attended the meeting.  The meeting started with a report from the Assessor’s office that even if the appeal was sent in with the wrong form, as long something was filed by the deadline, that it would be considered for appeal.  So far, the Assessor’s office has received notice of at 144 appeals, which is a near record number. [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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GoLakeChelan’s own Steve Byquist interviewed Buell Hawkins on taxes today.  He says he has gotten the message, but there is no quick fix.  Listen here!

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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The May Snapshot Report is out from Pacific Appraisal.  An excerpt of their comments includes:

Wenatchee Market:
Year to date, sales by volume continues at a lower pace than last year -down 26%. Sales by number is down 28%.  Number of homes on the market is at 588 indicating a [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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Lawmakers will explain property taxes, answer questions 

OLYMPIA…With new property tax valuations hitting Chelan County homeowners’ mailboxes, Sen. Linda Parlette and Rep. Cary Condotta will participate in a public forum on property taxes June 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Chelan High School.

The meeting is organized by GoLakeChelan.com and the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce. Topics will include future property tax changes as well as tax and budget trends.

The issue of property taxes, say the 12^th District lawmakers, is raising ire among property owners who have seen their property taxes rise an average of 6.7 percent in 2005, 9.5 percent in 2006, and a staggering 15.8 percent in 2007, [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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Last week there were two real estate auctions in Wenatchee.  A developer auction for a 37 acre parcel May 29th with preliminary plat pending and 9 homes being auctioned by a builder to close out two projects on May 31.

So, how did they go.  I asked Paul Thomas of Northwest Auctions to give me his summary of the builder auction.  Here’s what he had to say:

Overall, the seller feels that our May 31st Builder Liquidation Auction was a success. The auction marketing campaign produced tremendous exposure and visibility for his properties and four were sold in advance of the auction using [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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While the national news is all about the Case-Shiller reports showing a huge 14% decline for the first quarter from almost every news source, we in North Central Washington are still holding our own with prices that are doing alright according to the most recent data here.  Sure, things have slowed from some of the craziness of the last few years, but overall North Central Washington is doing pretty well.  Compared to much of the country, things here are doing real well.

Even the MSN article about this latest report, while focusing on all the bad news, acknowledges that North Central Washington is one of the better markets:

In a few places — small cities and towns in scattered places — prices held, demonstrating the [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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The “Snapshot” from Pacific Appraisal Associates for April is out. It shows a softening market in sales volume in both the Wenatchee multiple (down 15% in $) and the Wenatchee Market (down 27% in $). The number of homes sold is down 28% year to date in the Wenatchee multiple and 21% in the Wenatchee market.

But, the average home sales price year to date is still up [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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On May 29th and May 31st, two real estate auctions are scheduled to happen in Wenatchee!  The 29th brings a developer’s auction with Criterion Properties for a development at preliminary plat stage for 46 lots in Sunnyslope.  On the 31st, there is a builder’s liquidation auction with Northwest Auctions for nine new single family homes with warranties in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee!

Auctions are, and were even before the real estate market turned last year, the fastest growing method of selling real estate in the United States.  Why?  The reason is simple: with a well done auction, sellers get their property sold, at the market price, with a minimum of trouble.  In a market like we have today, [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local, Marketing by Al Lorenz
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Very rarely do I get the pleasure to help a client with a property who actually knows some of the history of their property.  Even more rare is that the history is actually a compelling story.  I’ve never had discussions and research of the history of a property lead to current events, but that’s what happened for me with a client near Monitor.

What these folks have is: A property with a history….

 Bill & Laura Niemela have lived the history of their Fairview Canyon Ranch since 1970.  Although it is only ten minutes to Wenatchee, it is truly a world apart.  The views of both mountains and rivers are sweeping and spectacular and the spring flowers are vibrant.  Even the purchase of the property happened from a colorful twist in that the home on the ranch, built by Lawrence Netherton, had recently burnt down.  That misfortune may have been for the best in that Mr. Netherton had built the house with only seven foot ceilings since [Read more →]

Tags: General Interest, Local by Al Lorenz
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